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The Wayback Machine: Flash Report Endorses Carona’s Re-Election

Since the Flash Report’s only comment on the Carona indictment comes in the form of links to stories in that days paper and one commentary of general GOP corruption that mentions Carona, I tuned on the WayBack Machine and found this old commentary from Jon Fleischman from June 2006 supporting the Sheriff’s re-election.

Mike Carona: A GREAT Sheriff who should be re-elected.

Jon Fleischman- PublisherThis Tuesday is a big election day throughout California, with a lot going on including a nationally-watched special election for Congress in San Diego, a heated battle between two Democrats for the honor of going up against Arnold Schwarzenegger this fall, Rob Reiner’s tax hike/government-run preschool scheme, and much more. All of those things and more have been talked about on this website.I am going to take a few minutes, though, and talk about a race that is near and dear to my heart. My apologies to the vast majority of FR readers who hail from outside of “The OC” — but I want to take a few minutes to urge my several thousand Orange County readers to vote to re-elect my boss, Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona. If you are reading this column, and live outside of Orange County, but have family, friends or acquaintances here, please contact them and ask them to vote for Sheriff Carona.

I have known Mike Carona for nearly fifteen years. He and I first met when he was the Marshal of Orange County (in charge of security for our county courthouses) and I was a special assistant to freshman Congressman Ed Royce. Over the years, I have come to know Carona as a man of strong integrity with a commitment to freedom and liberty, and a passion for public policy administration.

Because of Mike Carona’s strong belief in Republican principles, I have seen him be a leader within the GOP. He has endorsed hundreds of Republican candidates for local, county, state and federal office. Whether it has been his support of paycheck protection, or his solid opposition to both open primary measures, Carona has done the right thing. This year you need only look at the big battles in Orange County to know that, despite his own election taking place, Carona is still stepping up for the GOP cause. He was a solid endorser of Diane Harkey for State Senate, and he is a prominent supporter of John Moorlach for Board of Supervisors.

Of course, for FlashReport readers, it is important to see the Sheriff as a great conservative leader (I’ve never met a Sheriff who is more passionate about second amendment rights than this one!), but the last five and a half years, I have been able to see a great law enforcement leader and manager first hand. If you didn’t know it, I work full-time in the media relations office of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. In that capacity, I get an insider perspective of Sheriff Carona.

Mike Carona words tirelessly for the department (which is a large one – with around 4500 employees and an annual budget around 600 million bucks!). I’ve never met anyone more dedicated to their job than Carona. Whether it working day and night with his command staff of four Assistant Sheriff’s to keep the day-to-day operations on track, or if he is traveling around the nation (Carona serves as an advisor to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and on the board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).

The accomplishments of the department under Carona are many (click here) and he has a ton of great support (click here) including virtually every GOP elected official in Orange County. Most significantly, Orange Countians can easily answer yes to the question, “Are you safer today than you were eight years ago?”

Carona is looking at three opponents on tomorrow’s ballot, all of whom I would seriously call “B” players. All of them have resorted to the worst kind of campaigning — where they takes the lies and falsehoods printed in publications like the Orange County Weekly and spread them around as if they are true. Instead of being for something, they have all decided to run negative campaigns. Anyways, none of them, in my opinion, offer the kind of real leadership that Orange County has come to know from Mike Carona.

There have been a number of news articles (primarily in the OC Weekly and in the LA Times) that have been negative about the Sheriff. Well, I can tell you as someone who is truly in a position to sort out fact from fiction — most of what they have said simply isn’t true. And the volumes of great things that he and our department achieve on a daily basis that the newspapers don’t print is staggering. Yes, unfortunately somone the Sheriff hired for his senior staff turned out to be involved with criminal activities. That said, the Sheriff let that person go (before these activities came to light) and the Sheriff tells anyone who asks that he takes responsibility for having brought that person in, and for letting that person go. Don’t believe those out there who want to truly make a mountain out of a mole hill – their sole agenda is to take down an honorable and well-respected public official.

A last word about Mike Carona that I think should be significant to FlashReport readers. I think that it speaks volumes about Sheriff Carona that he has been very supportive of my efforts to start and maintain this website. Often times I will pen controversial things, and while neither he nor you, I’m sure, agree with all of them, I think it shows a commitment on Carona’s part to the causes in which we believe that he has been so supportive.

In closing I would simply say this. If you do not know Mike Carona already — then perhaps you will take the word of someone you do know…me! I am not only voting for Mike Carona — but am doing so enthusiastically. Please consider voting for him as well, and like I said above, if you have relatives or friends in Orange County, encourage them to vote to re-elect Sheriff Carona as well!

Sincerely,

Jon Fleishman

Publisher, The Flash Report

P.S. For inquiring minds, Mike Carona has no idea that I am writing this note to all of you. At least until he reads the FlashReport today!

*****

With someone who professes this much insider knowledge of the Sheriff’s office, I would think Mr. Fleischman will be dusting off his witness shoes once the trial begins. Either Jon knows about the alleged corruption and never said anything, or he’s not the insider he portrays himself to be. So which is it? What did Jon know and when did he know it?

Anyways, none of them, in my opinion, offer the kind of real leadership that Orange County has come to know from Mike Carona.

I won’t speak for others. But I’ve never seen the type of leadership from anyone that we’re witnessing from Carona.

Sex, graft, corrupt cronies. Someone could write a cheap novel. And it would be non-fiction.

Drama Queen

November 5, 2007 at 1:41 pm

Dave Lopez just reported that the Feds tried TWICE to get Carona to plead guilty to tax evasion and were so angry at Carona’s refusal that they threw the book at him. Wouldn’t it make great drama if the feds overzealously filed charges against Carona that won’t stick and the likes of Jaramillo and Haidl skate with their plea bargains?

Evening Coffee

November 5, 2007 at 5:20 pm

If Jon was still working for Carona, this would be business as usual for him to blog as “Drama Queen”. It’s probably now Ryan (who replaced Jon) who is blogging in defense of Carona. However, it may still be Jon, who was recently acting as a media advisor for Carona when he was “overzealously charged” by the feds. Jon should of stayed with his county job / with benefits, after getting married and having a child. Obviously not making enough $$ with the consulting business and blogging. Sad.

Aunt Millie

November 5, 2007 at 5:36 pm

Dave Lopez just reported that the Feds tried TWICE to get Carona to plead guilty to tax evasion and were so angry at CaronaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s refusal that they threw the book at him. WouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t it make great drama if the feds overzealously filed charges against Carona that wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t stick and the likes of Jaramillo and Haidl skate with their plea bargains?

This is one of those comments where I had to start with asking who Dave Lopez is. My Google search indicates that he is a video stenographer for one of the local TeeVee news stations, or as his affiliate declaims, “an award-winning journalist”.

There are days when I agree with the crazybase about the media. It really does suck, not because it’s liberal, but because it’s pathetically incompetent.

I stopped watching local news fifteen years ago because it’s crap, and stopped watching cablenews and network news because it’s crap.

When Drama Queen cites this as a source for Carona’ s innocence, I have to laugh.

Evening Cosmo

November 5, 2007 at 5:41 pm

This is good sh!t. You can’t make this stuff up! Of course Jon is not going to bash his former boss. He has to be feeling two things… either
A) I am such a dumbass to have believed Mike Corona, or, B) This is just a vast left-wing conspiracy of Mike Corona. Either way, Jon will keep his mouth shut. He would be stupid to say anything.

And on another note… whether you are a Dem or a Rep, how terribly embarrassing for the OC…

Dan Chmielewski

November 5, 2007 at 6:07 pm

I hear that Jon gets about $300 a pop for his blog ads and he asks for a 90 committment from all of them. Count up the ads, and he’s doing pretty well. Ads are frequently renewed. He is doing well enough to work pro bono for Carona.

You;d have to ask the advertisers on the site if its effective advertising or not.

Drama Queen

November 5, 2007 at 8:35 pm

The only thing the reporter stated was that, according to his source, the feds were angry. I didn’t get the impression he was defending Carona. My question was ,Won’t this be a good drama? Maybe “overzealously” was poor diction on my part. The Feds want to nail Carona and they were hoping he would take the plea deal for tax evasion like the other two. Now they will have to take it to trial. But no matter what happens, Carona is finished politically. And this drama IS going to be fun to watch.

RHackett

November 5, 2007 at 8:37 pm

DQ. You make it sound like the Feds had nothing better to do and picked Carona at random. He’s brought his troubles upon himself.

He should be a good conservative and take personal responsibility for his actions.

Drama Queen

November 5, 2007 at 9:18 pm

Sorry if I made it sound that way. All prosecutors want to nail their suspects. If they don’t then they wouldn’t be very good representation for the people.

Upon conviction, he will HAVE to take responsibility for his actions.
And it will be fun to watch.

Dan Chmielewski

November 5, 2007 at 11:15 pm

Maybe the feds were angry because the county and state should have done something here and didn’t. These are Bush appointed prosecutors going after a well-respected Republican. If Carona were a Democrat, it’d be a different story.

Notice how quiet it got for the right wingers here; almost no commentary from the usual suspects outside of basic reporting of the facts. Matt Cunningham, Jon Fleischman, Adam Probolsky, Chuck DeVore, Todd Spitzer are al remarkably quiet about this…

Credit to the reporters at the LA Times and the OC Register; kudos to Greenhut, Dillow, and Moxley. The county supes are even doing the right thing…but that unofficial OC GOP power led by Schroeder that, other than Schroeder’s commentary on the weak case, all pretty flippin quiet.

Look at all the prominent corruption cases in OC; all have GOP attached to them.

Anonymous

November 6, 2007 at 9:01 am

So what if all the prominent corruption cases in OC have GOP attached to them. That is because GOP is the only thing that matters here. Everyone in power here is GOP.

Now look at San Francisco, all of the corruption cases have Democrats attached to them. Does that mean all Democrats are corrupt? No.

IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve always said that the Ã¢â‚¬Ëœtop copsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ must be held even more accountable, than the boots in the street. As our Highest authority says, Ã¢â‚¬Å“To whom much is given, greater is required.Ã¢â‚¬Â

What could have led to his demise?
I suspect Carona being elected too quickly to the top cop, of the 2nd largest Sheriffs Department in California was problematic. To my knowledge he may have never been a deputy Sheriff. But he is elected to thee Sheriff.

That is tantamount to what occurs to some of these young movie stars or celebrities. One day their an average person, then their at the top. They missed out on the years of preparation, discipline and grooming for their new fame. Consequently, then they canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t handle it.

Carona gained his National recognition years back when 5-year-old Samantha Runnion was murdered. I have to admit Carona looked rock solid, and spoke very well behind the podium; as he announced to the world that SamanthaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s killer Alejandro Avila was arrested. Carona received great credit and admiration (Nationally) for that arrest. But the truth is, Carona was not the hero who located and arrested Avila. After this arrest Carona became a world-renowned hero. But is this fair? Is this correct?

It is tantamount to the former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. After New YorkÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s attack on 9-1-1, Giuliani stepped up to the plate (the podium,) and made press releases to the world. Just like Carona, Giuliani looked good, he sounded good, and he said everything we all needed to hear. But does that make him a great leader, or the hero? Does that now make Giuliani qualified to become the next President of the United States of America? Of course not.

Conclusion
The United States Attorneys office sustains a 98% conviction rate. If Carona is innocent, I surely hope he is found Ã¢â‚¬Ëœnot guilty.Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ But if he is in fact guilty as charged, then he should be found Ã¢â‚¬Ëœguilty’ as charged.

Had one of CaronaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s deputies been accused of the same, Carona would have suspended and/or terminated that Deputy. Therefore, I say itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s time for Carona to step down. Not just because of these criminal allegations, but because other alleged indiscretions.